Sunshine

I just made this and hung it up, all by myself. So.proud!

I got the most beat up board I could find at Home Depot, white-washed it with a light gray and green (2 coats), sanded it a bit, then stenciled the letters on with $2 paint from Michaels! I also bought a 50 pound hanging hook from Home Depot and screwed that in. I made the stencils using, get ready for it, a piece of paper traced over Microsoft Word on my laptop.

I almost went with some “french” saying, since that’s all the decorating rage right now, but nixed it for two reasons. 1. I don’t speak French. 2. Pretentious much?

Instead, I went with one of my favorite lyrics from one of my favorite songs. There’s actually a “Jesse/Kelly” romance story in this one. The fall of my first semester at Biola, just weeks/days before we started dating, we went to Lake San Antonio with our church youth group (warning– people actually DO fall in love during youth group events. Don’t let any teens try to assure you otherwise).

Jesse and I got into a horrible argument while driving up (which poor Tim can attest to, since he carpooled with us). It all started with my need to find a suitable public restroom during the 6 hour drive. Jesse was on a “schedule” and couldn’t be bothered to find a decent one. He wanted me to use the poor excuse for a poo-hole at a gas station. I refused, saying I didn’t want to get HIV from the toilet seat. He wouldn’t budge. So I had to use the gas station toilet, and I was spitting mad. The seat was complete with carvings and tattoos from gang members. There was poo smeared on the walls. I still remember it vividly.

So, by the time we arrived at the lake, we weren’t really on speaking terms. We’d been flirting for weeks, when all of a sudden we just stopped talking to each other. Like that. Over a gross bathroom incident. Haha, actually sounds a lot like marriage…

During “campfire time”, Jesse tried to talk to me, but I deliberately ignored him and even went so far as to start flirting with other guys (did I mention that I was in a bit of a rough place at that time in my life?).

All of a sudden, I heard it– Jesse had picked up his guitar and was singing, “You are my sunshine”, looking right over at me. Months prior, I had told him that it was one of my favorite songs, mostly because my mom would always sing it to me. I had mentioned that I always felt loved when I heard it.

He totally remembered. It wasn’t quite an apology, but it was close enough for me. 🙂